MeinMMO author Benedict Grothaus has been enjoying the tactical shooter Rainbow Six: Siege for some time now. Since the GSA League started, Rainbow has become his absolute favorite shooter – thanks to the plays of the professionals.
Rainbow Six: Siege is already one of my absolute top games, but like with everything, there are sometimes dry spells. For me, that was around March and April – despite the occasional rounds, I found myself looking at other games more.
The current “Grand Larceny” event contributes to my returning interest in Rainbow, but the main reason lies elsewhere.
Since the GSA League started on April 25 in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, I have been joyfully watching the matches and have actually developed a real desire to play Rainbow Six again – more than for Modern Warfare or Warzone. Even the new shooter hit Valorant has failed to excite me since then.
Surprisingly, many of my friends and gamer colleagues feel the same way. Conversations about Rainbow Six and the plays of professionals lead us to meet up for a few rounds at least a couple of times a week in the evenings.
But why exactly does E-Sports make me want to play a game again? I’ll explain it to you.
Top plays increase the fun of the game
This is what’s great about the League: The GSA League is a regional tournament for the DACH area, so no professional teams from around the world compete against each other. This already brings a certain connection and generally encourages me to watch a game more.
But what’s truly important is the content. The best players from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland play in the league and show some really amazing plays.
In the qualifier matches, for example, one team completely overran their opponents in just a few seconds – the fastest round of the qualifiers. While this is not a groundbreaking new tactic, the execution and how well it worked had a truly uplifting effect.
Additionally, the (aspiring) professionals play differently than one is used to as a “casual”. Operators are selected or banned that one wouldn’t have expected, or their nerfs and buffs apparently turned out to be harsher than anticipated.
Why does this make me want to play? Watching how the professionals play makes me want to try the things they demonstrate. I don’t mean that I necessarily want to get into E-Sports, but rather that it looks like fun.
Bear plays Castle in Club House? A Clash in a tournament? Odd picks from my perspective, but actually I’ve never paid attention to the operators – let’s give it a try, it looks fun.
Together with a few gaming buddies (or even just two of us), these things are then applied, and new nuances of Rainbow are discovered that I have never really seen before. Most of us have found that we got stuck on a few operators and rarely changed.
In fact, watching the GSA League has also helped me get better. With my newly discovered joy, it’s not really about winning anymore, but winning is still a little more fun than losing.
Watching GSA League and understanding what’s happening
Watching the league and playing myself has a pretty useful interplay: I learn what the best players play and why they do it, and I understand what’s happening in the stream while watching.
Without a bit of knowledge about the subject, it is almost impossible to understand how a cover for reloading in the embedded clip led a player to run to his death instead of to victory:
This helps me in one way to gain a better understanding of the game – and thus to write better articles for you. On the other hand, I can get much more excited about what happens in the league matches.
If a certain tactic is played or an operator is chosen that I didn’t expect, it literally blows me away when I see how the team utilized those combinations for a strong victory. Those who want to get an impression of the GSA League can find more information about the league and the stream here:
Rainbow Six Siege: So seht ihr die Deutsche Liga
Alle Infos, Ankündigungen und Streaming-Pläne zur großen deutschsprachigen GSA-Liga.
What the GSA League currently triggers for me in Rainbow Six has not even been achieved by the Overwatch League in Blizzard’s team shooter. And that, although I’ve spent significantly more hours in Overwatch than in Siege.
Rainbow Six: Siege is a tactical shooter, and understanding what’s happening is essential for victory. The GSA League helps me precisely with that, and it’s a lot of fun to dive deeper into the subject, to discover new aspects of operators or maps, and then to implement this knowledge myself.
For me, E-Sports is a top extension for the game.
Conclusion: This is what makes Rainbow Six the best shooter
All the explanations show why I’m enjoying Rainbow Six again, but what really makes it the absolute best shooter for me is the incredible depth. This depth is always offered by the shooter, but it stands out much more through the GSA League.
It’s the details that make Rainbow Six so great. At which corner should I stand and why? Which wall and floor need a hole for me to have an advantage? Which operator is slightly better than another on which map?
These are things that the other current top shooters simply do not offer:
- Modern Warfare and Warzone also have E-Sports, but they lack depth, such as operators with special abilities
- Overwatch has heroes, but the game modes lack the tactical component that destructible walls in Rainbow Six provide
- Valorant is simply not finished yet – although I doubt whether the Counter-Strike approach will be as well received as Rainbow’s
I’m personally amazed that Rainbow Six, despite its relatively high age of nearly four and a half years, is still at the top. The shooter must be doing something right, to remain so popular even after all this time.
